Work crew discovers injured bird at home

Nail driven by gun into swan's beak not easily removed.

Nail driven by gun into swan's beak not easily removed.

November 11, 2006

WHITE LAKE, Mich. (AP) -- It took someone a moment to drive a nail through a 25-pound swan's beak with a nail gun. It's taking many people days to undo the damage. Wayne White, 53, said he and a crew were working on his home sprinkler system Nov. 4 when a large swan walked onto the property. "One of the workers noticed he had a nail sticking out of his beak," said White, who lives on Tull Lake in Oakland County's White Lake Township, about 25 miles northwest of Detroit. "He didn't seem to be in distress, but it was stunning to see." The large nail was the kind used in construction, he said. "The nail obviously had been shot from a nail gun," he told The Oakland Press of Pontiac. "It almost had to be point blank." White said the swan hissed when he approached it, so he went for help. He called the Michigan Humane Society, and group rescuer Sherry Klopp came out the next day. "I knew I couldn't use a big net because I was afraid of hooking that nail," she said. "I fed the swan a little bread and he came over." "Sherry kept talking to it (the swan) and carried it to her car and put it in a crate," White said. Klopp took the swan to Oakland Veterinary Referral Services in Bloomfield Hills. There, technician Kim Schmidt and veterinarian Judith Fleischaker anesthetized the swan and used pliers to pull the nail out of its beak. "It didn't go into the head," Schmidt said. "We cleaned the wound area and gave it antibiotics." The swan was picked up Monday by a Waterford Township waterfowl rehabilitator who has property with a large pond.